Kwame Akoto-Bamfo is a sculptor and activist from Ghana who is at the forefront of young African artists reclaiming the history of African people brutalized by colonialism. He grew up near the ocean in Ghana, which had been the infamous center of the slave trade. His elders, great-grandmothers who were born long after the the slave trade had been abolished still recall how, as children, they were cautioned that if they were naughty they could be bound and taken to the sea. The terror and dread of those threats and cautionary tales still linger in their memories and their reluctance to retell stories that still evoke grief. The need for inter-generational healing carries the high cost of encounters with the sadness and deep suffering Kwame Akoto-Bamfo has instilled in his moving sculptures.
Here is an incredible 15 minute video about Kwame and his work:
Inseparable from the loss and trauma suffered by the ancestors in Africa torn apart from their loved ones, Akot0-Bamfo has used his art to continue the saga of those who survived the horrific middle-passage, only to be dehumanized, exploited and brutalized by their masters in the Americas. His remarkable sculptures are now featured at the Equal Justice Initiative’s Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Alabama. In this video, Akoto-Bamfo stands at an historical marker honoring the “European people who built Alabama”, and remarks on its glaring omission of the enslaved Africans’ contribution to the built environment of Alabama as “a separate narrative of otherness.”
The Ancestor Project is a nonprofit in Ghana centered around his work. The Center for Transformative Action (CTA) has an associated project called the Friends of the Ancestor Project to help build awareness and raise money for the Ancestor Project and its programs not only in Ghana but in the US, Americas, and Europe as well.
The Dorothy Cotton Institute is honored to be able to share this esteemed project and Kwame Akoto-Bamfo’s art among DCI’s aligned resources.